We spent a bunch of time on the blog yesterday, but then also on chores around the house and tried to burn a copy of a CD — without much luck on my laptop, and only slightly more on John’s computer. We may have to return to the old XP computer in the back room, where I know we can copy Audio to Audio, make multiple copies, and the same with data-disks. Cannot understand the problems we are having. Makes no sense.
Still overcast and 27 degrees. John went out to exercise the dogs and throw some hay to the horses. I begged off till it’s above freezing, because I got very cold (primarily my hands) yesterday. I did manage to get some shots of a few Starlings back to clean up the rest of the Mt. Ash berries we mentioned in last week’s blog, and that reminded me of my 2011 shot of the rime on them which did not build up as much this year.
Now toward the end of the week, we will have warming temperatures and the likelihood of rain or snow. It will make things all muddy.
I remembered to call my 83 yr old friend on his birthday. He doesn’t have email, so I cannot send him an animated card. Some of the pictures following could appear on cards and other things – some are very colorful, like the one of the yarn and knitted things, and many show the amazing talents of people (some we know).
The picture above is one I posted on-line to the Buy Nothing Ellensburg Facebook site, to thank the donor of the bag of knitting yarn, and she plans to bring more. She works part-time at a local florist. She makes hats for people (for a fee) and sometimes they buy the yarn and let her keep the leftovers. Her name is Carolyn. She said when seeing the above picture, “That is wonderful!! Her things are beautiful.” The woman who makes and donates the above items to the Adult Activity Center, I introduced you to last week. Her name is Carol.
Monday, Jan 27
I decided against going to town today. Trying to catch up on receipt filing, organizing and recycling. We still are clouded over and cold. John’s exercised the dogs and talked to the horses. I washed clothes. Two new members joined our music group, so I have been busy working on getting copies of the music for them. I’m shipping off the images for the woman in the group (Roberta) who invited them, to run on her printer. The new members are a couple. The gal plays the Bass Fiddle, and the guy plays two instruments: a fiddle and/or a Charango. I’m almost done, and it is 8:00 p.m. and we have yet to eat dinner. Maybe I will have oatmeal. Just found a problem with my sheet music for “There Is a Tavern in the Town.” I have it in the right key, but the timing is off. I have it in Cut Time . . . . . . and the others have it in 4/4 time. The problem is that I put it in my SongWriter software so I could transpose it for our clarinet player. I have to change the timing now. Always something to take away from time I do not have enough of.
Tuesday, Jan 28
Have to eat lunch at home and take my antibiotics at 1:00 p.m., even though John disagrees with my taking it, and cites the American Dental Association. Having gotten bacteria in my blood twice a year apart, I think I would rather do it. Those little guys enjoy lodging themselves on actual and artificial (porcine) heart valves.
Got The Tavern in the Town completed in the right timing and have it ready to send tonight to the group. Unfortunately, I received a “delayed delivery message” from the first e-mail I sent to the potentially new members. Now I’m trying to locate a phone number.
My dental appt went well, and they repaired the tooth base keeping the gold crown intact. It was an expensive filling, even with insurance, but it was a far sight better than a new gold crown. $50 was my deductible, but that is paid for the year. On my way home I stopped off again at a gal’s house in town where I received several clothespins a couple weeks ago. This was for a brand new pair of comfy and warm slippers. Below is my ‘thank you’ picture I
sent tonight to the “list” – Contrast is with my old down booties slippers with a completely worn out leather sole. These have cushioning and a study hard rubber sole with a nice tread. Came home to find a new cable (Micro USB) in the mail that John had bought on Amazon to transfer pictures from the camera on his new phone to our computer. Our one for the Nikon cameras has a standard size connector. John found one quite reasonably priced more so than anything in town. I got the pictures off the camera. Below are a couple of my favorites I took on the walk last week, that didn’t make it into the blog. For those we used ones from our normal cameras. However, some of these are neat, starting out at the road with our blue and white lot number. At some higher elevations in the county the utility wires had ice about 3 inches across, and they had some downed lines.
Barbed wire on rock crib. Along the fence, the ground slopes down and faces north. The weeds there get a nice coating and will be one of the last to melt or blow off.
Along the front fence there is a deer path that leads either to the road or the neighbors. To prevent the dogs from following that path John used some of his newly cut poles and made a barricade. It goes only half-again as far as shown in the picture but then (with some brush in the way) it turns the dogs back toward our own pasture. The second photo shows how that path goes between big Cottonwood trees – it was all brush there before.
I love the rime on things, particularly wire, but also weeds. Here is a photo from the road of our eastern-most part with ancient cottonwood trees, many with busted limbs from old age and wind, not ice.
Wednesday, Jan 29
John’s sister’s birthday is today. Happy birthday to Peggy in Parma, OH. They have had very cold temperatures. We had an early morning call from John’s cousin, Ethel Reynolds, in Brookville, PA. We awoke to 2-3″ of snow, but nothing like the east and the problems of a couple inches in Atlanta, GA. I remember having a big snow there in 1950-51 and writing the date on the windshield of our old big black 1950 DeSoto. The ice has totally crippled the city this year. We know what that is like. About 1970 or so, in Iowa City, we had ice that created impassible streets. Why people get cantankerous with city officials at times such as these ice storms is a mystery. Once the ice is on things there isn’t much to be done. Too bad they didn’t think to stay home.
Thursday, Jan 30
Drove 1/2 mile around our rural block for a haircut this morning, and on my way over, I called Consumer Cellular to complain about John’s new phone not keeping a charge overnight. They will send a new one and the free postage to return the old one. Whoopee, the sun is out, temperatures up, and the ice (and snow from yesterday) is melting. John just fixed pizza for lunch with raised crust, pineapple, sausage, pepperoni, green pepper, and shrimp. We play at Mt. View Meadows, which is only about 3 times a year, when a 5th Thursday is in the month. It was a great “shew” – and we had many percussion instruments there to back up only two “melody/harmony” players (Clarinet and Fiddle). We had a banjo, timbrel, and 5 guitars. And, I wore my Hoedown vest given to me by a gal in the upper county. Ain’t it purdy?
I wore it so I could show our hoedown honky-tonk piano lover (an 87 yr old resident at the place). He absolutely loves us. I went to his room to show him the vest, which I wore just for him, and wanted to be sure he felt like coming down to join in (he’s on continual oxygen). He came and even played You Are My Sunshine on the piano at the start of our music. Ellen took the photo of me in the vest to thank the donor on line. While there, I had our guitar player, Roberta, who is smaller than me (Medium) try it on, with the hopes she can use it to play music next month in an elementary school or two in town. It fits her better than it fits me, and that will be an appropriate venue.
I picked up dog and cat food on the way home from Bi-Mart on sale, and also bought John a nice case for his new phone. The woman that offered me one on line free never came through. Maybe her husband vetoed it. This is really a camera case, but it has a thing for the belt, and it has a hard case and enough room for the phone. No holes on the side (as normal cases for flip phones) to collect pieces of hay. I haven’t mentioned this to John, so he will learn of it as he reads and touches up my text. Tonight, I spent a bunch of time rewriting Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. We just did not have it coordinated well. I completely changed the timing, and put in all the words (even when a repeat, such as “Comin’ for to carry me home,” on multiple verses. I am gaining great respect for session musicians that can play whatever is asked of them.
Friday, Jan 31
Today were three events. At the Sr. Center was a Chinese New Year’s (Year of the Horse) celebration. I wore a sweatshirt of John’s (which is tight on him now), with a horsey scene. It was a hit with many people there, and I had taken my camera to take a picture of
the horse Intarsia on the wall. Don Bunch, artist from George, WA created this one, which someone donated for the wall, so I stood in front of it and got Moiré to take my picture on my camera. Click this Don Bunch of George, WA for the story — George, WA is just 45 minutes east of us. They served Chinese Food including Pot stickers – they called dumplings, with chicken or pork, green snow peas marinated in a vinegary sauce, egg rolls (meat or veggies), a great cabbage salad, a coconut pudding cake made with white rice flour (its Chinese name is Nian Gao, and symbolizes higher heights in the new year), several dips (I chose plum, later going back for sweet & sour). They gave us treats, some wealth (chocolate dollar and a real penny), a Chinese name tag with our first name and, for me, a 2 symbol Chinese rendition, a red piece of paper with pens to write something we want to get rid of in our life (I wrote: “not procrastinating”). We had place mats of the Chinese Zodiac for fortunes of the Chinese year according to our birth year, and a lady who is a member of the AAC group, brought some very nice chopsticks for people to use, who wanted. I used mine after cutting a couple of things into smaller pieces for dunking in sauce. The red wishes for needed changes were taken outside and burned. Everyone got a Tangerine for good luck. Afterward I drove to the $1 store and bought two metal spatulas for John. One has holes/slats, and the other is solid. Then on back to our SAIL class. Then I drove home, (the mail had John’s order of printer cartridges waiting for us), came in for 1/2 hour rest (while he napped and I sat in my recliner reading emails). While I was in town, he was exercising the dogs, feeding the horses, and cutting brush. We had a heat wave – to 45. We went back to town for a travelogue of Asia presentation by our friend for many years, an economist at CWU, “Moose” Mack. He and his wife spent parts of 2010, 2011, and 2012 in Asia, at different universities, and traveled extensively in China, Hong Kong, Laos, Cambodia, Viet Nam, Indonesia (Bali), and a couple more smaller islands. One exciting canoe trip in the Mekong River was in the itinerary. He presented at 4:00 p.m. until a little after 5:00, and then after the talk, we had nice snacks and wine. Spicy meatballs with some veggies atop, a neat pastry with blue cheese and artichoke filling, fruit and veggies such as cantaloupe, melon, celery, carrots, and grape tomatoes. It was a nice touch for dinner for me, and we will just have a piece of cooked cherry pie tonight for the rest of “dinner.”
Saturday, Feb 1
Goodness, the start of another month. Where does the time go?
In anticipation of Superbowl Sunday, people have been flooding the Internet with emails to connections to previous and current ads. This link will take you to a slightly different view of the story about the Budweiser Clydesdale rearing. Stay tuned for this year’s ad, or search for it on the web. It’s wonderful, but I think a previous one is even better.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan